Mike Foster: Bringing oil issues into perspective

Institutions are throwing so much money into energy futures, the market has become distorted

US President George Bush won no prizes for stating the obvious last week. "America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world," he said.

However, recent data suggests institutions have become every bit as addicted to energy futures. A notional $900bn (€747bn) was invested in commodity futures in the first nine months of last year, according to Mike Rothman of broking firm International Strategy and Investment, against $300bn for the whole of 2004.